AT&T on Monday confirmed that it sold and activated more iPad tablets this past Friday than it has on any other single day. “On Friday, March 16, AT&T set a new single-day record for its iPad sales and activations, demonstrating robust demand for the new iPad on the nation’s largest 4G network, covering nearly 250 million people,” AT&T said in a statement. The carrier did not share any sales figures, however, and neither did Apple CEO Tim Cook earlier on Monday when he said that Apple’s new iPad saw record sales during its debut weekend. BGR noted on Friday evening that while iPads were much easier to find this year compared to Apple’s previous two iPad launches, AT&T’s iPad Wi-Fi + 4G was sold out more than any other model at more Apple Stores we spoke with.

Needham & Company analyst Charlie Wolf on Tuesday raised his estimates for iPad shipments in the fiscal third quarter and full year. Wolf now believes increased demand will boost third-quarter shipments from 7.5 million to 9 million units, and he thinks Apple will ship a whopping 30 million iPad 2 tablets in fiscal 2011. “While competitors have rushed to launch competing tablets, they have made an imperceptible dent in the trajectory of iPad sales,” the analyst wrote in his note. “They have been unable to undercut the price of the iPad; and they’re fallen woefully short in matching its features, ease-of-use and the number of applications written for the device. Indeed, the only risk in our forecast is on the supply side, not the demand side.” Wolf also bumped his fiscal third-quarter Mac shipment projection from 3.75 million units to 4.25 million and 17 million units for the full year. Finally, he reduced his fiscal fourth-quarter iPhone estimates from 17.5 million units to 16 million, stating that Apple is likely to slow iPhone 4 shipments ahead of the iPhone 5’s launch in September. For the full year, Wolf sees iPhone shipments totaling 66 million units.

In Apple’s earnings report released on Wednesday, the firm noted that it shipped 4.69 million iPad units during the second quarter — down from the 7.33 million it shipped the quarter prior. Apple’s chief operating officer, Tim Cook, has said that the iPad sales suffered due to backlogs but that the firm is pleased with manufacturing and expects to build “very large number of iPads” this quarter. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with Concorde Securities, attributed last quarter’s decline to Apple’s transition from the first generation iPad to the iPad 2 and thinks that iPad shipments will do a full 180 during the third quarter. Kuo estimates that shipments of the iPad 2 will “[jump] over 100% sequentially” in Q3 as Apple introduces the device to store shelves in 13 new countries. If you’re wondering which hue — black or white — has sold better, the answer is white. 60% to 65% of the sales for Apple’s second generation tablet were white iPad 2 units, Kuo said. More →

Market research firm ABI Research on Wednesday released sales data covering the global consumer tablet market in 2010. According to the firm, Apple’s iPad accounted for 85% of the media tablets sold in 2010, and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab was the second most popular tablet model with an 8% share. Finally, Archos’ tablet range occupied the No. 3 spot with roughly 2% of the global market. The rest of the companies that entered the space last year combined to make up 5% of the global market according to ABI’s numbers. While this data is in line with earlier findings reported by other firms, ABI holds an opposing position with regard to the tablet market’s impact on netbook computers and eReaders. “Device categories including netbooks and mobile broadband-enabled eBook Readers showed gains in year-over-year shipment numbers in 2010,” said ABI senior practice director Jeff Orr in a statement. “The hype that media tablets were displacing portable computers and dedicated CE device purchases simply didn’t become a reality.” While the emerging tablet market might not have had a significant impact on global PC sales in 2010, the market does appear to be sliding so far in 2011 according to recent first-quarter estimates from IDC. Hit the break for ABI’s full press release. More →

RBC Capital Markets Managing Director Mike Abramsky on Tuesday reiterated the firm’s position that sales of popular Apple products like the iPad 2 likely helped Apple record an impressive fiscal second quarter. In a note to investors, Abramsky wrote that tremendous demand for Apple’s iPad 2 tablet along with solid sales of the iPhone 4 (17 million units) and Apple’s refreshed MacBook Air and MacBook Pro notebooks (3.6 million total Macs) may have led to $24 billion in revenue in the second quarter. The figure would represent 78% growth over the same quarter last year, and is above Wall Street’s consensus of $23 billion. RBC sees Apple having shipped 7 million iPads in the second quarter, which includes 2-3 million iPad 2 units and is down 5% from the year prior. The firm estimates 8 million third-quarter iPad shipments, and also notes that Apple will likely launch the iPhone 5 in September — but if it instead launches in June, it could add $1.2 billion to the firm’s $23-$24 billion third-quarter revenue estimates. RBC adjusted its full-year iPad sales forecast up from 25 million to 31 million units, thus pushing its fiscal 2011 revenue estimates from $99 billion to $102 billion and possibly helping Apple to cross the $100 billion milestone for the first time. Apple will report its fiscal second-quarter earnings on April 20th.

Research firm IDC said on Tuesday that 17 million consumer tablets shipped in 2010 according to its Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker. In a press release, the firm also stated that the tablet market’s remarkable third-quarter growth of 45% was due almost entirely to sales of Apple’s iPad. Calling them “media tablets,” IDC says 4.8 million consumer tablets were shipped globally in the third quarter, up from 3.3 million units in Q2, and approximately 4.2 million of them were iPads. “The media tablet market’s rapid evolution will continue to accelerate in 4Q10 and beyond with new product and service introductions, channel expansion, price competition and experimentation with new use cases among consumers and enterprises,” said IDC’s research director in charge of mobile connected devices, Susan Kevorkian. Hit the jump for IDC’s press release. More →

The good news for HP, if a new rumor has any basis in reality, is that it apparently smashed its HP Slate 500 sales goals. The bad news is those expectations were seemingly quite low. HP’s Slate 500, which launched less than one month ago, is now backordered on the company’s website. According to rumors, HP had a limited run of 5,000 units ahead of launch last month. It then went on to sell a reported 9,000 units. Of course 9,000 units pales in comparison to sales of Apple’s iPad, the tablet by which all others are measured (regardless of how ridiculous comparisons might be). Last quarter, Apple sold over 46,000 iPads each day. On the other hand, selling 9,000 units of a product that sits squarely in a market that doesn’t yet exist is pretty impressive. The need for business tablets — much like the need for consumer tablets — is a need that manufacturers are doing their best to invent. The increasing flood of tablet offerings suggests they may succeed, and HP’s small victory so far with the Slate 500 certainly bodes well. More →